Terms and conditions

25th June 2024

In these standard terms and conditions, “we” and “us” means Plan 2 Build It, and “client” or “you” means you.

1. General Conditions

• We will observe the byelaws, regulations and ethical guidelines of the Royal Town Planning Institute and accept instructions to act for you on the basis that we will in accordance with those guidelines. Copies of the RTPIs Code of Professional Conduct are available from the RTPIs website www.rtpi.org.uk
• All fees and charges submitted by other professional advisers, specialists or experts (“third party advisers”) sub-contracted by prior agreement with the client shall be the sole responsibility of, and payable by, the client and we shall have no liability whatsoever for any fees or charges submitted by such third party advisers.
• Unless otherwise agreed, we will not be responsible for monitoring or reviewing the work of third parties retained or engaged by you, nor will we be responsible for the quality or accuracy of that work.
• We shall not sub-contract any part of the commission without your prior written approval, unless the sub-contracting of any part of the commission is set out in, or is reasonably envisaged by, the scope of work, in which case we will notify you as soon as reasonably practicable that a part of the commission has been sub-contracted. We will not be responsible for the quality or accuracy of any work sub-contracted to any other professional advisers, specialist or expert and we shall have no liability in respect of the same.

2. Client Monies

• We may, from time to time, hold money on your behalf. Such money will be held in trust in a client bank account.

3. Fees

• Our fees are calculated on the basis of the time spent on your affairs by the principals and staff, and on the level of skill and responsibility involved. We will review those rates on an annual basis and let you know, as soon as reasonably practicable, of any resulting changes to our fees.
• The following costs are normally added to fee accounts as disbursements:
  • photocopying and the printing for hard copies of submission documents
  • planning history document fees
  • location and block plans
  • publications (local plans/development plan documents)
  • pre-application fees charged by a local authority
  • service charges to Planning Portal for electronic submission of applications
  • planning application fees
  • postal and delivery charges
  • mileage and other travel expenses reasonably incurred.
• Invoices will be submitted on a monthly basis, on completion of the works or as otherwise agreed with you and must be paid in full within 14 days of the date of each invoice. We reserve the right to charge interest on invoices that remain unpaid 30 days after the invoice date. Our standard interest rate is the greater of 8% per annum or 4% over Bank Of England base rate. We reserve the right to immediately suspend work on projects where accounts are outstanding after 42 days, and/or until satisfactory sums on account of future fees or disbursements are provided.
• Where accounts remain outstanding after 42 days and the client has given instruction to us we will send an invoice due for payment, we reserve the right to take payment (including any interest) via this method.
• If it is necessary for us to carry out additional work outside of the agreed scope of work then this may result in additional fees. We will notify you prior to carrying out this additional work and will provide an estimate of such fees before commencing additional work.
• Should you, for whatever reason, decide to: (a) cancel or terminate this engagement prior to completion of the agreed scope of work; or (b) materially alter the agreed scope of work, then any work done by us (pursuant to or in connection with the agreed scope of work) as at that date shall be invoiced in full.
• We reserve the right to require payment of work carried out prior to submission of a planning application or prior to issue of written advice or reports. For longer and more complex projects interim accounts will be submitted at suitable stages in the process.
• In the case of a planning appeal, fees must be paid by the client before the submission date of the appeal.
• Any delay in receiving information (or any errors or inaccuracies in that information); any changes in the client’s instructions; or any matter outside our control which leads to additional work (whether or not such work falls into the agreed scope of work or not), may result in additional fees.
• We reserve the right to reimbursement of expenditure relating to attendance at planning committees, site visits and other meetings. These will incur additional charges at the prevailing hourly rates unless they are explicitly included within the scope of works.
• We reserve the right to reimbursement of expenditure relating to dealing with section 106 agreements. These will incur additional charges at the prevailing hourly rates unless they are explicitly included within the scope of works.